Album of the Day

Years before their 1980s pop breakthrough, The J. Geils Band had paid their dues as Boston's hottest blue-rockers, and the sextet's 1973 studio album, BLOODSHOT, lives up to the group's reputation. Future Eagles producer Bill Szymczyk is behind the boards, but that group's meticulous mystique is far removed from the raucous energy bursting from these grooves. Along with a couple of well-chosen covers (such as The Showstoppers' “(Ain't Nothin' But a) House Party”), keyboardist Seth Justman and frontman Peter Wolf came up with a batch of originals that could pass for R&B classics themselves: “Don't Try to Hide It,” “Make Up Your Mind” and “Give It To Me” are but a few of the scorchers here. BLOODSHOT was justifiably a Top 10 hit, and we'll give the Atlantic collection another spin in honor of guitarist Geils, who was born on this day in 1946.