Next month The Hellmenn, the fuzzed-up punk band from Sydney's Northern Beaches, are getting back together to play a benefit gig, Monster Session, raising money for MS research. It's the first time they've played together in fifteen years.  I had a quick chat with lead singer Ben Brown about surfing, skateboards and upsetting Alby Falzon...

Stuart Nettle: First you ripped off MP's famous cutty for album art, then used 'Mourning of the Earth' for an album name: is Alby Falzon aware of the Hellmenn's history of plagiarism? Ben Brown: When we released Mourning of the Earth - witty hippy activists! - in about 1990, the Manly Daily ran a picture of the cover and G Wayne Thomas, who sang the original film title track, saw it and contacted Alby who in turn contacted our record label. My spineless mates at Waterfront Records then flicked it on to me, but once we contacted Alby and let him know we were a bunch of punk kids from Manly taking the piss he thought it was cool. That MP photo was always a personal favorite. My older brother had the LP of the soundtrack to Morning of the Earth and that pic takes up the whole center of the gatefold sleeve. Awesome.. SN: Are you still surfing these days? BB: Yep, still surfing at Manly, North Steyne... sometimes Curly or Longy if I'm feeling adventurous. SN: Still skating? BB: Only skate with my two little boys these days. Tick tacks out in the back yard. Once they hit five we'll all get back into vert skating... SN: Have the Hellmenn got back together before Monster Session, or is this just a one-off gig? BB: No, we haven't played for fifteen years. We thought we never would play again, but saw a lot of mates still jamming and having fun and we were asked to play various shows. You Am I asked us to open a show for them at the Annandale late last year, but we couldn't get our shit together in time for that. Hopefully we'll be organized for Monster Sessions. SN: Your first album, Herbal Lunacy, had a distinctly hardcore, Black Flag-inspired, feel but then you fellas hit the anchors and went all herbal around the time of Mourning of the Earth: was that a reflection of age catching up, or other factors catching on? BB: We played a lot of shows in those days, and it gets boring doing the same thing all the time. We liked to try different stuff and I suppose we just didn't want to keep making the same record over and over again. But I would have to say I like the first few records the best, there is a lot of energy, beer and madness in them. A retrospective CD of all of our stuff including those first two manic EP's is coming out soon on Melbourne label, Missing Link. SN: Do you ever wish you just kept playing four-to-the-floor hardcore? Especially considering that Nirvana sort of opened a door to that sound later. BB: No, all the records we made were just a reflection of where we were at as a band. We didn't want to start playing a contrived sound to try and appeal to certain markets or whatever. You have to try other things to enjoy it. Just playing the same stuff all the time gets very monotonous. SN: So you didn't consider tweaking your sound and hitching a ride on the Sub Pop express? BB: We were signed to a major label and got flown around and stayed in better hotels and that sort of thing around that time, we got to play on the first two Big Day Outs - for us that was good enough. In retrospect I don't know if we could have been a 'real' band, we were a pretty out of it bunch of freaks. SN: Have you kept in contact with the music scene much through the years? BB: I do through friends and work - I still design rock posters and promo stuff for music - I just did three posters for Pearl Jam's recent tour, and a poster and tee-shirt for You Am I, but I don't get to as many shows as I'd like. I tend to crank the iTunes and drink in the studio after work with my art cronies. But yeah, still in touch with a lot of music stuff generally. SN: What bands were you listening to back in the day, say when you were recording Herbal Lunacy? BB: A mix of Hendrix, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Hard Ons, Radio Birdman, Joy Division, The Replacements, Celibate Rifles, Minor Threat, Bored!, Descendants, Massappeal, Splatterheads, Space Juniors, Sonic Youth, Crosby Stills Nash and Young... a pretty wildly mixed bag of stuff. SN: And what music are you listening to these days? BB: The same stuff, plus Black Mountain, Brandt Bjork, Queens of the Stoneage, The Drones, Jay Reatard rest in peace, The Runaways, 50 Lions... all sorts of stuff, iTunes on shuffle while we work. SN: What are we gonna get at Monster Sessions? BB: Mostly the harder louder stuff. Maybe that Stooges cover [Surf & Destroy - the Hellmenn's bastardised version of the Stooges classic] or an MC5 cover... we haven't even practiced yet... SN: I ride Stuart Paterson's PCC boards and I hear you fellas used to have a bit of a working relationship, what was the deal there? BB: Pato was our mixing guy for years. He came on tour with us and stuff like that. He had his own band - the Yard Animals - which played with us a few times. Last year he made a board that I painted to be auctioned at Monster Sessions show and it was a great board. He shaped it as a 80's - 90's model. It had fantastic thickness and was reminicent of a Simon Anderson Energy board in their heyday crossed with an Al Merrick / Curren model. It was awsome... but now its probly hanging on a wall with a couple of skulls drawn on it. I often ride an old McCoy single fin from the late 70's when the waves are small and should get Pato to shape me the ultimate hybrid... his boards are great. SN: I've also heard there was a bit of a north of the harbour vs. south of the harbour rivalry. Care to elaborate? BB: Ha! Only when the Manly Sea Eagles were smashing those hapless Cronulla sharks!

Monster Session is on Saturday 13th March at Sydney University Manning Bar. The lineup so far is:

THE MEANIES HELLMENN DEPRESSION HAPPY HATE ME NOTS LUNARCIDE THROWDOWN NUNBAIT THE HARD-ONS FROZEN DOBERMAN DAREDEVIL TWEEZER THE CELIBATE RIFLES THE LIME SPIDERS

You can buy tickets here