Thievery Corporation: more original and less capitalist than name implies

Good music abounds this weekend in Vegas — and the quicker we jot this down to tell you, the quicker we can leave the CityLife cave and prepare for it. So, enough foreplay….

This weekend’s musical highlight is no doubt Thievery Corporation (see story here), currently taking its Outernational Music Tour across the U.S. and Europe, and blessing Las Vegas with a stop. Anyone who saw the bossa nova/electronica Washington D.C. duo play last year during Vegoose weekend can vouch for its skills and artistic versatility. This appearance will be special because sharing the stage with them are Bebel Gilberto, a frequent Thievery guest vocal collaborator and world-renowned bossa nova icon, and Seu Jorge, perhaps best known for his role as singer Pelé Dos Santos — the guy doing the David Bowie covers in Portuguese — in the movie The Life Aquatic. Oh, and headlining is Gnarls Barkley, the kaleidoscopic, genre-blending act comprised of singer Cee-Lo and producer Danger Mouse. This could be the best bill of the summer. (8 p.m., June 21, Mandalay Bay Beach).

Also: We’re also lucky to have scored a date with Broken Spindles, the other electro-rock project of Joel Peterson (who also plays guitar and bass for The Faint), performing with XrayOK, Lanterns and Afghan Raiders (10 p.m., June 20, Beauty Bar). And former Vegas resident Jacob Smigel and accompanying local act Las Vegas Club return to town for a stop on their current summer tour of the southwestern U.S. (see Fear and Lounging brief here). Hungry Cloud also plays (8 p.m. June 22, KGPA at 5690 Boulder Highway).

Finally, we’re almost embarrassed to suggest popster George Michael’s 17-years-in-the-making Vegas show (8 p.m., June 21, MGM Grand Garden Arena), except that we know you totally owned and loved his 1987 album Faith when you were in middle school. Homeboy says it’s his last tour — famous last words — so this may be your only remaining chance to hear “Careless Whisper” live … unless you happen to attend a concert by The Gossip, who do a kick-ass, punked-up cover of that Wham! hit. (Seriously, go to iTunes and download that shit. Even if you hate that song.)

“Missed it by that much…”

So the governor who said there would be no special session one day before calling a special session has postponed that special session. Why? It turns out the budget gap is bigger than we realized. Or maybe smaller. Who knows? This is government by rampaging clusterfuck, after all.

The rescheduled special session has been set for next Friday, but according to a statement from Gibbons’s office, will only last three days. So a deficit of $60 million to $90 million needs five days, but a deficit of more than $200 million needs only three days?

Clearly, somebody thinks he can build consensus, set an agenda and get everybody to rubber-stamp it in record time. Again, a deficit $60 million and $90 million was thought so contentious that nobody believed it could be done in five days, but a deficit twice as big can be fixed in three days?

We can’t wait for the next twist, but here’s a handy guide: Think of the worst-case scenario, dial it back one or two notches and that’s what Gov. Get Smart will do. (And to think this guy was trying to become chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence! Or CIA director?! Thank God even Gibbons’s fellow Republicans don’t hate America that much!)

We can’t wait for the next twist, which will probably be a constitutional convention to repeal statehood or something.