It’s a brisk Saturday evening and Clara Salyer's new group, Prissy Clerks, which she formed last October, just won Vita.mn’s annual Are You Local? contest after a performance the previous night at First Avenue’s 7th St Entry. "Prissy Clerks emerged from this dark place and since then, even including last night, its coming to this really happy balance, personally and musically," Salyer said. The quintet features Dylan Ritchie of Teenage Strangler on guitar, Howard Hamilton III of Red Pens and the NPC’s (which also includes Ritchie and Salyer) on bass, former Total Babe drummer Tim Leick and high school friend Emily Lazear playing accordion.

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While there’s some overlap in sound, Prissy Clerks finds Sayler and her new cohorts toiling in grander, more reverb-drenched arrangements as opposed to the lush folk-pop that defined most of Total Babe’s material. For instance, “No Sir,” which is already getting regular airplay on The Current, is a bittersweet slice of melodic pop rock. The sonics are all sparsely arranged, which allows each instrument to fully breathe underneath Sayler’s wispy vocals before closing out with an explosion of ethereal clutter. "Total Babe didn't have a bass. They had a violin that was always kind of quiet in the mix,” Hamilton, who originally advised Sayler to pursue a solo career after the break up, said. “You could always put the tag of folk on anything for Total Babe and you can't really do that with Prissy Clerks. And of course the accordion is a big step.” But the shift in sound can also be attributed to the fact that, despite her being at the helm of this project, Sayler’s not just writing and assigning parts. Prissy Clerks is more of a collaborative effort that involves the entire group. [Raghav Mehta, MN Daily]