Chances With Wolves: Pumpernickular Funkulations

Chances With Wolves: Pumpernickular Funkulations

Interview: Ricky Powell

CwW is an Internet radio show on EVR (eastvillageradio.com) consisting of three dudes who are into exploring the outer limits of music and playing songs that are obscure as well as funky, specializing in dope covers. I met Mikey Palms first. He’s a native Brooklynite who co-owns the club Southpaw in Park Slope. I did a slideshow there last year and he said I should come through to the radio show, and I gladly obliged. The other DJs, Kenan Juska (another Brooklynite), and Kray DioBelly, greeted me with open arms and graciously / jokingly dubbed me “The Fourth Wolf’’ after seeing my custom-made Pumas with the photo of this husky I used to walk back in 1985.

I go semi-regularly on Monday afternoons. It’s like a rejuvenating booster shot of positivity. If I’m feeling foul or down, I know taking that trek across the Village to the show is a sure thing to uplift my mood and perception of life. They’re a cool crew and I want to big them up / let people know about this unique trio of music anthropologists.

Ricky Powell: Mikey Palms. Mikey Palms in the Hamptons. Chances with Wolves interview. How are you?
Mikey Palms: I’m chillin’. Me and Uncle Kray. What up, Kray?
Kray DioBelly: Yo, what’s up, Ricky? We are in the Hamptons. In the Lamptons.
RP: I can’t believe I’m out here in the Homptons.

So tell me, the three of you have interesting, unique personalities, but you blend euphorically. How did you guys get this together and how long have you had the show, Chances with Wolves, as a unit?
KD: We’ve had the show for about a year-and-a-half now. Mikey Palms approached me and Kenan and was like, “We’re gonna do this radio show. We gotta make this demo.” So we went through our illest records together and threw some wolf howls all over them.

RP: How long have you guys been doing the show now?
KD: Well, right now is episode 113.
RP: Wow.
KD: So about 113 weeks we’ve been doing it. One hundred and fourteen, actually, ’cause there’s a zero episode. We played some reruns and took some breaks in there, but, yeah….

Chances with Wolves. Photo: Ricky Powell.
RP: What is it with you guys and coming up with these covers out of, like, oblivion? Is that a signature maneuver of yours?
MP: Sometimes covers are just better than the original—no offense to the original composers and songwriters and instrumentalists. It’s a different interpretation.
RP: I love that. That’s one of the things that stand out to me.
KD: My favorites are Beatles covers, ’cause the songs are so good, but the Beatles are played out a little bit. You’ve heard them a million times, so it doesn’t have that magic. The only way you can recapture the magic of the first time you heard that song is by finding some weird cover that takes that song and puts it in a different context. It’s familiar but brand-new.

RP: I love your team—great individualists, and great as a unit, kinda like the 1970 Knicks.
KD: Oh, Rick…
RP: Kray is like the Bill Bradley, Mikey Palms is like Willis Reed, and Kenan is like Walt Frazier.
KD: I feel you on that, and maybe I’ll go into politics afterward.
RP: And that’s not a diss, ’cause I know Bill Bradley looked doofy in his shorts.
KD: He was nice, though.
RP: Real nice, dude. He was one of the best players in the nation when he was coming out of Princeton. He scored 55 in the championship game against Cazzie Russell. But if you watch game seven of 1970, you can see how dope Bill Bradley finished fast breaks. He would catch the ball from Frazier on a dead run and finish—which is huge—instead of slamming it off the backboard. He was dope.

How did you guys group up to make this phenomenal team?
KD: Well, we all grew up together.
RP: That’s remarkable. And you stayed friends?
KD: Well, they were older than me. I used to be a little kid to them, and then they took me under their wings. You know what I mean?
RP: Love that.
KD: And Mikey Palms hooked it up. He got the show and then he asked me and Kenan to come up with some shit. Mikey Palms came up with the name, Chances with Wolves.
RP: It’s a good one.
MP: Wolves are really interesting animals. They’re pack animals. They’re monogamous.
RP: Like you? Right.
KD: They’re beautiful, noble creatures.
RP: Well put.

Do you prepare your sets before you come over to the station?
KD: No, never. Just a stack of shit and then we feel it out. That’s why sometimes it’s really good, and that’s why sometimes it’s not so good, if we’re not feeling it in the moment. But when it comes together? Beautiful.

RP: Any specific plans, or are you just gonna keep doing the show for
the love?
KD: Well, we do the show for the love, and then, hopefully, the people that love it hook us up with more gigs. We already got more gigs lined up off of that shit. It’s different doing the radio and throwing a party, you know? It’s fun to do both.