Ladies choice: Sister Carol and Team Dresch

For 25 years, Jamaica's Sister Carol has been a leading voice of feminine strength within reggae — music that's notoriously male-centric — by writing and producing an impressive body of work. The woman who also calls herself Black Cinderella, Mother Culture, and I-Sis (a combo of sister and Isis, Egyptian goddess of divinity) has an album slated for later this year, so a good opportunity to hear new music from Sister Carol comes on Wednesday, Aug. 23, when she performs at Red Devil Lounge at 8 p.m. Admission is $15-18; call 921-1695 or visit www.reddevillounge.com for more info. — Tamara Palmer

Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner's collaboration as Wolf Parade has proven to be one of the most interesting indie rock acts to surface in the past year. The two inject a dramatic but never emo-tional sense of theatricality into their keyboard and guitar-driven barroom canticles, trading off lead vocal duties with distinctive melodic warbles. The arrangement of Wolf Parade's debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, places it high above run-of-the-mill guitar bands, as this Quebec-based act furthers the Canadian domination over college radio. Wolf Parade performs on Thursday, Aug. 24, at the Fillmore at 9 p.m. Admission is $20; call 346-6000 or visit www.thefillmore.com for more info. — Jonah Flicker

Personal Best — Portland four-piece Team Dresch's 1994 full-length — contained concise, brazen queercore narratives. But more importantly it was a screeching blowout of pent-up frustration and a condemnation of cowardice. In 24 minutes, Team Dresch addressed emotional rights of passage and Right Wing takedowns — before heading on to a sophomore album of overdriven body politic discussions and then a decade's hiatus. The time to survey mid-'90s feminism's polemic punk has come; hit Slim's on Friday, Aug. 25, to see Team Dresch grip and rip through multidimensional tensions like Matrix bullet time (doors at 9 p.m). Admission is $11-$13; call 255-0333 or visit www.slims-sf.com for more info. — Tony Ware

One of the leading lights of the Bay Area thrash-metal movement's second wave, Death Angel combined precocious talent — drummer Andy Galeon was only 14 when the group released its crushing debut The Ultra-Violence in 1987 — and a gift for writing ferociously complex, neck-snapping anthems. A 1990 tour-bus crash left Galeon seriously injured and derailed plans to join the now legendary Clash of the Titans Tour with Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, and Death Angel imploded. Though the principals collaborated on several projects in the following decade, it wasn't until they reunited for a 2001 benefit that the members realized their destiny to resurrect the group. Hear classic songs and tunes from Death Angel's surprisingly fierce 2004 effort The Art of Dying when the band plays on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Slim's at 9 p.m. Admission is $18-20; call 255-0333 or visit www.slims-sf.com for more info.— Dave Pehling