Ladies Light It Up

Destiny's Child sang a song about them—independent women. And Central Oregon's music scene has been benefiting from ladies like that for a while now. They command attention as stage performers, as business owners supporting local live music and as website developers aiming to connect music fans with new social media tools. It's time their contributions were acknowledged.

For the last five years Caitlin Cardier has been Bend's own cross between Beyoncé and Mariah Carey—minus the diva tendencies. And in a town dominated by indie rock, bluegrass and folk music, Cardier sticks out like a sore thumb. That's actually a really good thing.

Cardier is in charge of her voice and sings soulful anthems backed by hip-hop- influenced beats. She has released her own work and lent her voice to tracks by some of Bend's best rappers, including Jay Tablet and Amsterdam. Cardier has also been tapped twice to appear on stage as part of the Ladies Night Out concert series in Washington.

At those shows, Cardier was followed by acts like Bell Biv DeVoe, Boyz II Men and Brian McKnight. Her song "Dreamers" was also just featured on an episode of MTV's Washington Heights. That's a pretty big deal for a gal who got her start at Mountain View High School.

"I was in choir from middle school through the end of high school," said Cardier. "We had a huge 120-person choir that was directed by Mr. Plant. We traveled up to Canada and did all sorts of cool things. After high school I knew I wanted to pursue making music."

Today, she is working on her second album with Bendite Tyler Hewitt on the soundboards. And according to her it will be a bit different than the last one.

"It's gonna be a big statement," said Cardier. "I'm headed in a more jazzy direction with less hip-hop. I'm a very passionate person and I haven't lost that part of me, but I want to do something sweeter that is for all ages."

When Tiffany Tindle bought her first house in Bend, she had no idea her next move would be to purchase a River Rim Coffeehouse—a shop with a reputation for being a live music destination. But she's so glad she did.

"We knew we wanted to own our own business," said Tindle. "We would go to [River Rim Coffeehouse] to talk about the houses we had just looked at. When I started looking up rental space for a business in the Brookswood Plaza, I stumbled upon the fact that the coffee shop was for sale. We thought that would be a really fantastic way to get to know the community and cool that we could walk from our house to our very own local coffee shop and see live music."

Tindle does all of the booking of musicians for the coffeehouse herself and likes to bring in artists who have never played Bend before. But lately it's the shop's open mic night—which is now going to be offered weekly on Wednesdays—and the banjo jam every other Thursday that are getting to be really popular.

"It's been really fun because we had Willow Parker who was an open mic regular recently get her very own gig on a Saturday night in town," said Tindle.

Tindle said watching the growth of the musicians who play her shop has been one of her favorite aspects of owning River Rim Coffeehouse.

"It's been an interesting experience owning the business," said Tindle. "The relationships I've developed with them have been fantastic and something I didn't expect. As some of them have played the shop more, I've become a part of their everyday lives."

You might think there isn't any room in the social media marketplace for yet another sharing website. Bend website developer and music fan Kara Dake disagrees.

Thanks to the Bend entrepreneur support outfit Founders Pad, some investors, and a lot of ingenuity, Dake is on the verge of successfully unveiling Signalfy to the world. Well, to the Bend, Eugene and Portland areas to start. But the world should consider itself on notice.

Signalfy is a website specifically built for the electronic dance music genre. It's a place where you can follow your favorite venue or artist and get updates for when shows are added to their schedules. It's also a place where you can announce those shows to your friends and "signal" you are attending by sharing to Facebook, thereby creating hot spots that will be visible to anyone using the app.

"It will be a website that will work in concert with a mobile app," said Dake. "The app will be for discovery while you're out and about, and there will be a map that shows what's going on around you. You can follow Astro Lounge, Domino Room or Liquid Lounge and receive newsfeeds for events."

Dake says the idea for Signalfy was cooked up while she was living in New York City.

"I rent out my apartment in NYC on airbnb.com," said Dake. "I would have these guests come and stay with me and they would always ask what they should be doing in my city. While there were a bunch of sites I could send them to, it was really disjointed. There wasn't just one site that would work to find events."

The beta launch for the site is coming soon and you can get early access by signing up at signalfy.com. There's also a launch event scheduled for April 17 at Portland's Holocene. For fans of EDM, this social media tool should easily become your new best friend.