Rolling Stone has just named “Is This It” the #2 album of the decade and though I’m now here at Little Wing Marketing and Vinny is working for a major label we couldn’t be prouder.  The handful of us at It’s A Gas really believed in what we were promoting and were really proud to play our role in making the album a success.

Check the RS article.

For the record we also promoted the Radiohead album “Hail to the Thief” which appeared at #89 on the list and we worked the first Kings of Leon record “Holy Roller Novocaine” which, while not on the list, was the start for the band who appeared on the list three times at the number 39, 53, and 80 spots.

#89 | Radiohead: Hail to the Thief

You can hear tracks from “Sound Awake” at their website. Below is a live version of “A New Day”.

Little Wing Marketing is building a digital toolkit for press use. But we love this band. We’re hoping to get more involved.

They have a cool story. In 2004 they decided to get a van and follow the Vans Warped Tour. Whenever the tour would stop to play they’d head to the parking lot, setup, and play a 5 song set. One of the old roadies for Sublime heard them, radioed Kevin Lyman, the Tour organizer and told him that there was a band that sounded like Sublime playing in the parking lot. Kevin came out, listened, and asked them to play his BBQ later that night.

The next year, illScarlett was invited to play a slot on the 2005 Vans Warped Tour. The rest, as they say, is history.

Their 2007 Canadian release “All Day With It” went Gold in Canada and they’re currently bringing their album EPdemic stateside.

Little Wing Marketing is building them a digital toolkit for press and is creating an online contest for fans to get to know the band better. We’re spreading songs from EPdemic around music blogs and giving 1-2 songs away each week while building a US fan base. We’ve also secured placement for their single “One-A” in the OMGPOP.com game “Hit Machine”.

In a lot of ways, Angelo could be considered a nostalgia act, if that weren’t meant in a derogatory sense. There are lots of guys who think a suit, a shiny old-school mic, someone to tickle the ivories and a martini is all it takes to recreate the rat pack heyday. A quick search around YouTube will sate your thirst for schlocky lounge acts forever.

Angelo is a cut above. A self admitted Frank Sinatra addict, he puts in at least six hours a day honing his craft.

We recently redesigned Angelo’s MySpace page, gave him a presence on Facebook, and are actively building him a fan base.

You can view the video on YouTube or check it out below.

Little Wing Marketing recently helped her and the rest of Team Strickland enter the world of web video. For their first video Cynthia and her family showed how to bake her famous Cream Cheese Pound Cake.

You can view the video on Vimeo, YouTube, their website or below.

Baking a Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Cynthia Strickland from Cynthia Strickland on Vimeo.

Palm Coast Data specializes in data driven solutions for websites. These run the gamut from shopping carts and gatekeeping to cross-promotional offers and customer service solutions.

Their clients include Popular Science, Creating Keepsakes, New York Magazine, The Glenn Beck Program, and more.

Little Wing Marketing created a video for their website that highlighted different aspects of their internet services. The video can be seen below or at palmcoastdata.com.

Kate’s song style is a little bit indie, a little bit pop, and a little bit opera. Yes, opera. She’s classically trained and isn’t afraid to use her voice as an instrument capable of different tones, timbre, and intonations. She can effortlessly move from the Tori Amos-like “The Last Day on Earth” to the thumping (and catchy as hell) “Can’t Shake It” and the storied “Caught in the Crowd”.

Little Wing Marketing has created a digital toolkit for Kate for press. We’re also engaged in securing online press for Kate, creating material for her street team and working her solo tour in the US using street teams.

Can’t Shake It

Little Wing Marketing is heavily involved in her online promotions for her US release. We helped secure her placement in “Hit Machine” on OMGPOP.com, got her sponsored with Ravage Skateboards, have created a digital toolkit for press use, and manage both her online and street teams.

Guilty Pleasure


I’m ALIVE [Live]

Inauguration day was coming to an end, another dozen balls and the first couple could finally call it a night. Throughout the day, a nation buzzed with happiness over the end of the rein of Bush the Younger and the beginning of America’s 12-step program back to fiscal and national health.

But before the day gave way to celebration and eventually arguments about a stimulus package and appointees with tax issues, Aretha Franklin had to get her singin’ on. Unlike the performance of Yo-yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill, Aretha, 65, sang a difficult song with no leading melody while wearing a large gray hat complete with embedded Swarovski crystals.

Though not the song of choice at the time, how do you spell R-E-S-P-E-C-T? For artists who labored on the chitlin circuit, endured the worst racism our country has to offer and literally achieved the American dream by changing popular culture, Obama’s ascent to Ruler of the Free World was the culmination of everything they had endured. It was the realized dream of Dr. Martin Luther King. It was the final nail in the coffin of the Civil War South.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the moment or the people that worked so hard over the years to realize it.

For an entire race (if not an entire class) of people, r-e-s-p-e-c-t was the real reason for the joyous inauguration atmosphere. That’s why Aretha Franklin’s voice was so powerful. The respect was a long time coming.

If there’s another song that summarizes the feelings of that day it was Etta James’ “At Last”. So powerful the message, it was chosen to be the song that Barack and Michelle Obama first danced to. Etta even got a 45 second tribute right before the couple took the stage.

Then the misstep: Beyoncé sang Etta’s song.

I have nothing against Beyoncé. But the first dance shouldn’t be sung to karaoke. Even if that karaoke singer is one of the best in the world. No one – and I mean no one – can do Etta better than Etta.

The day after the performance, no one seemed to notice that Etta sat in the audience while Beyoncé performed the song. I, however, was pissed.

Barack Obama has done wonderful things in the days since his inauguration. He’s revamped the Freedom of Information Act, closed Gitmo, stopped US torture and to a large extent, rendition. All of these are larger decisions than which performer sang a song at a celebration. But Etta James should not be overlooked.

To me, it will be a footnote in history: the first mistake by our new President.

For the longest time after that evening, it seemed like Etta had no opinion on the subject. She never expressed a desire to switch places with Beyoncé on stage. That is, until a concert in early February in Seattle when she finally cleared the air. Sarcastically calling the singer “The great Beyoncé” Etta said:

“I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song, she gonna get her ass whupped.”

She went on.

“I can’t stand Beyoncé… [she] had no business … singing my song that I been singing forever.”

She even slammed the President himself. “You know your President, right? You know the one with the big ears? He ain’t my President.”

Now, those who know Etta personally can tell you that there’s a mixture of righteous anger and tongue-in-cheek showmanship in her words. Days later, she clarified herself:

“I didn’t really mean anything,” James said. “Even as a little child, I’ve always had that comedian kind of attitude. … That’s probably what went into it.”

And then the kicker: she went on to say that she was “feeling left out of something that was basically mine, that I had done every time you look around.”

For Etta, the short tribute by Beyoncé was not an adequate substitute for being on stage and singing her song herself for the Obamas and for us..

Doing so would have capped an amazing career and would have allowed her to feel as so much of the rest of us did that day. At Last!