Upper Cut

UPPER CUT was formed in 2000 in the Washington DC/Northern Virginia area by founding members Kirk Yamatani (vocals/guitar), Steve Bell (bass), Jeremy Balint (lead guitar) and Greg Pablo (drums). Their debut 2001 album "Upper Cut" was a mix of old pop punk songs Kirk had written during his days in TINKLE, as well as some new ones they put together for a high energy, catchy, melodic rock/punk sound. Their debut album was prominently featured in the 2001 ESPN X-Games, and winning the DC Hard Rock Cafe battle of bands landed them a spot on the 2002 Vans Warped Tour stop at Nissan Pavilion (now Jiffy Lube Live). After 3 years of beer soaked shows and fun with local bands and friends like Big Meanie and 33 West, UPPER CUT decided to call it quits.

In 2009, Kirk solicited his brother Keith Yamatani to play lead guitar as Jeremy moved onto a law career, and UPPER CUT officially reunited and released a music video for "Alright" in 2010: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVxZwcxN9rM

To close out their run in 2011-12, the band released four new singles which features some of their best work to date: "Starting Over" "Runaway" "Solution" and "Music's Over".