Phish keyboard player Page McConnell will give in to the inevitable by debuting his new side project Rollie Fingers at the group’s Curveball festival. Hall of Phamer David “ZZYZX” Steinberg, aka The Timer, expressed some dismay, pointing out that other than his mustache, Fingers was known for his fastball not his curveball (which Steinberg explains, “I once recorded reaching home plate in 0.412 seconds or 146.7 feet per second, which rivals some of Trey’s bullpen work during “Llama”).

Rollie Fingers will feature McConnell, bassist Oteil Burbridge and drummer Russell Batiste, which some wags have noted is the exact same lineup for his group Vida Blue, named after Fingers’ longtime Oakland A’s teammate. The Watkins Glens Weekly offers a response from Phish fan Poster Nutbag, whose uncle Jack Straw often reported on happenings from the Grateful Dead lot. Nutbag counters, “Yeah but Rollie Fingers is a waaaay cooler name because Page plays with his fingers, dig it?”

In other news, Mike Gordon will continue to call his band the Mike Gordon Band even as he explores a new indie rock sound. Gordon honed this approach in the studio with producer Shawn Everett (The War on Drugs, Grizzly Bear, Broken Social Scene) on OGOGO and refined it on the road through his patent-pending algorithm for generating setlists and scarf patterns, which has produced some quirky yet fashionable designs along with covers of “Gimme Some Lovin’,” “Funky Bitch” and “Sweet Emotion.”