Hope for the Youth

Description

Hope for the Youth is the debut effort by the American rock band The Holidays, a cassette-only demo album independently released on Racket Records in 1985. The album was produced, recorded, and mixed by Terry and Mark Eustler at New Day Studios. All songs written by the band.

The Holidays features Mini Mendez on lead vocals and bass, Mark Schrock on guitar and vocals, and Rich Mendez on drums and vocals. Saxophone solo provided by Dino Soldo.

This is, as far as I know, the demo debut of The Holidays. They went on to release two albums for Broken Records (Everything is Now in 1988 and Restless Heart in 1989), and then Mini Mendez formed bands like The Reckless Ways and The Glimmer Stars before going solo. The same catchy power-pop that is displayed on later albums is in full force here, just with a bit of a muffled demo quality recording value. It seems that only «Little Love» and «Maybe Someday» are the only two tracks to make it on to Everything is Now. Mini Mendez is still out there making music, so it is interesting to see where it all began. These songs are catchy just like his current material, so he has had his song writing gift for quite a while now. [Christian Tape Underground, August 20, 2018]

Cassette tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Little Love”
A2. “Got To Tell You”
A3. “First Love”
A4. “My Holiday”
A5. “Turn And Live”

Side Two
B1. “Maybe Someday”
B2. “Telephone”
B3. “Why Are You Different”
B4. “Back To Basics”
B5. “Tear The Curtain”
B6. “Didn’t She Know”