Andy Plank has gotten around in the Eau Claire music scene, playing with indie rockers and folksters and coordinating projects that bring genres together, but he got his start at Nate’s Dungeon.

“My real love for music started with basement punk shows … in Nate’s Dungeon,” Plank said. “Everyone would party and have a bunch of fun.” He’s now returning to that hardcore, punk background with Puncher – a group consisting of local musicians not known for their aggressiveness who’ve put together one of the more aggressive bands in the scene right now. “It’s been super refreshing for me,” he added.

Puncher is Plank, Eric Rykal (The Gentle Guest, The Frenettes), Dave Power (Adelyn Rose, Meridene), and Scotty Hayden (The Jim Pullman Band) and the four-piece just released their powerful, punch-in-the-gut debut Send Em To The Cemetery.

Send Em’s opening track “Always Be Punching Racists” hits hard, following a Malcolm X quote with scathing guitars and Plank’s hearty yelp in a sound reminiscent of Refused (who Plank acknowledged gave some inspiration). Musically the album constantly drives with the occasional virtuosity of Rykal’s guitar riffs.

Where Puncher strikes me, though, is in Plank’s lyrical prowess. As is commonplace in hardcore music, he hits on topics that make him angry, and Plank chooses those with care, bemoaning bigotry and racism that are still somehow persistent in our society.

“They’re not thoughts that are reinventing the wheel,” Plank said. “It’s all pretty common sense.”

Puncher’s first single, appropriately named “Theme Song For A Puncher” hits on something that drew Plank to the band when Rykal first brought the idea up to him: Plank had started to grow tired of every indie band sounding the same, every show perpetuating the “hipster sway,” instead of people having fun and enjoying themselves.

In “All Good Mall Punks Go To Heaven” he hits on that same point: “I want another chance to be in a punk rock band who / Writes music not dance moves.”

Well, it looks like you have your chance.

Puncher’s debut EP, Send Em To The Cemetery, is available as a digital download at puncher.bandcamp.com. Catch Puncher at The House of Rock, 422 Water St., on Jan. 18.