Man's Gin was born in Colorado when Cobalt multi-instrumentalist Erik Wunder and a friend took up their their acoustic guitars and a bottle of cheap liquor and began writing lonely tributes to the drink in which they were drowning their sorrows. The collaboration yielded a batch of home-recorded songs they called The Rum Demos, and circulated among their small circle of friends. 
Fast-forward several years to 2009--Wunder was living in Brooklyn and Cobalt had just released Gin, one of the most celebrated metal albums of the year. Man's Gin songs had been kicking around in his head for years, and Wunder decided to resurrect the project, adding electric guitars and drums to the band's original acoustic guitar / vocal structure and enlisting the help of Josh Lozano and Scott Edward on grand piano and upright bass. 
Differing on the surface from the extreme blacked metal of Cobalt, Smiling Dogs explores the darker side of Americana from a singer-songwriter prospective. It's a heartfelt collection both unnerving and beautiful, reminiscent of Woven Hand, Henry's Dream-era Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the more acoustic side of Alice and Chains, 16 Horsepower and even Tom Waits or Johnny Cash. Recorded by Colin Marston in his Thousand Caves studio, this powerful work is destined to be recognized as one of the best underground rock albums of 2010.