Steve Chab Band makes weird, pretty rock in Pittsburgh. Songs start as poems. Words wrestle roaring emo guitars into odd rhythms. Sung from an oversized hand-painted lyric book, stamped one at a time, some crooked and blurry.
Steve Chab Band makes weird, pretty rock in Pittsburgh. Songs start as poems. Words wrestle roaring guitars into odd rhythms and structures that turn when you expect them to hold. Emo fans compare SCB to Sunny Day Real Estate and Failure; Spotify slots the music next to early Death Cab.
Steve sings from an oversized, hand-painted lyric book. He lays salmon-colored covers across the dining room table and stamps each one, some crooked or blurry.
Broken Images came out in 2024. A year later, eleven artists remixed the whole album. 2026 brought a rarities cassette: fifty numbered copies, solo demos that predate the band, and every lyric read aloud as poetry, straight from the chapbook. See full bio …
Broken Images (2024). Broken Remixes album with eleven guest artists (2025). Rarities cassette, 50 numbered copies (Aug 2026).
Two-week house concert tour across five states, August 2026, booked by Steve and friends.
Millvale Music Fest, Audiofeed Music Festival, NoCo Fest, Hills n Hollars Music Expo, Porchlight Music Festival.
Runs Emo Music Revival, an 800-member music community on Facebook.
Somehow each poem perfectly catches-and-releases the cognitive dissonance of our world, making sense of the senseless and calling order out of chaos. These songs are for anyone who is ready to surrender.
Joy Ike Indie Music Artist, Poet, Teacher
[SCB's] music is so approachable while having this complexity behind the scenes that isn't distracting or pretentious. That balance isn't easy and I feel like [they] innately understand how to live in the sweet spot!
Futurewizard Indie EDM Artist
Wise, witty, clever, and haunting. Steve has captured our cultural moment with more clarity and fewer words than most. His poetry lands like a warm rebuke for the weary soul and offers a gentle re-orientation away from the temporal and toward the timeless. Somehow each poem perfectly catches-and-releases the cognitive dissonance of our world, making sense of the senseless and calling order out of chaos. These songs are for anyone who is ready to surrender.
Artist Statement
Shalom! Thank you for your eyes, ears, heart, and mind. I chose to publish this chapbook because these songs existed as poems first. The days of album liner notes, undivided attention, and critical thinking have vanished. Yet I desire to evoke nostalgia, capture time, and challenge your ontology with Broken Images.
God sees us as little images of himself, cracked mirrors reflecting back at him. Almost every song serves as a shiny fragment sarcastically sung from the perspective of fellow humans in my life, but all should rub your faith and politics. Visuals display abstract artworks and captured computer glitches, each titled with a strange, ethereal, and disposable pun. I hope you chuckle mildly under your breath or grimace in wonderment.
Let Broken Images take root. Pick the fruit. Let it age and ferment in your brain. Or maybe rot. Just learn something along the way.
Love, Steve
Table of Contents
∞ = poem/song. † = art.
Artifacts
American Flag
I stole an American
flag from a cemetery
dumpster. Untorn,
it read, Made in China.
Dot Rocks 4
No Trust No Fuss
I see his commands.
I plead ignorance.
I claim the easy way
by covering my eyes.
No trust? No fuss. I shall adjust.
I shall believe but not too much.
I claim the easy way
by covering my ears.
Accountability won't get the best of me.
2016-03-04 08.29.27
Seething Shakespeare
Lovers speak strange
from such seething brains.
I will not believe
in contrived fantasy.
Lovers, poets,
and madmen apprehend
more than cool reason
can comprehend.
Maniac's devils,
more than hell can close.
Lover sees beauty
in the slaves of Pharaoh.
Poet's eye a fine frenzy,
rolls from heaven to Earth.
Seething brain bodies forth
joy and freights divine.
A staff is a snake.
A shrub is a snare.
Battery Pits
Problem Hiding Problems
Before the arborist came,
two walnut trees blocked
my view of the city.
Fruit pummeled
the aluminum roof.
From dusk to dawn, it woke
me with a thunderous drum.
They blackened my hands
and knees; the yard was packed.
Picking rotten walnuts
off a hill in the back.
The wretched fruit I never ate.
I smelled the ground and cursed
them as we wasted away.
For 40 years I scorned the trees,
but the highway now drowns me in clarity.
My sleepy friend stains and haunts I-70
where echoes of screaming trucks heckle me.
Medallion
Crystal Bull
Cleave to my clearness.
Glare into my horns.
Recall your holy
king of the market?
Bow at my altar.
Put on my halter.
Primary product:
bovine in bondage.
Recall your holy
cow? Now I steer you.
King of the market,
who's castrated now?
Crazy Baby
Heartbeats Per Minute
It's no secret that you're unique.
It's no secret that you're pumping blood,
unique genetic makeup
whose heart beats at twenty-two days.
It's no secret you're praying hands.
It's no secret you prefer a thumb.
It's no secret you're showing eyes.
It's no secret you're blinking.
One-hundred-thirty
heartbeats-per-minute:
river that gives you life.
Make No Mistake
plans to prosper you
and give you hope,
for you are My child.
jesus.ai
Between My Eyes
A jealous lover beckons me: the grave.
Her white pony rides me into sleep,
sexing me with polyrhythms and weed.
She numbs comfort across my face.
A brand new love washes over me: yay God!
His wave rides me into freedom, into his bosom,
adorning me with promises and gems.
He writes his name across my face:
יהוה
Photoshop Glitch
Towers Dark
Untitled by Alex Williams
Miracle Chase
You would not find a miracle
if it shined on your face,
if it shined in your heart.
You would not find a miracle.
You would decline the love divine.
I pray for you,
cut your soul
by my Sword.
Tempo by Dave Dycus
The Answer
The answer is simple.
The answer is clear.
Just open your heart
and hear fear.
No more excuses.
Stop spinning your wheels.
React to your vision.
Make a decision.
Ubiquitous Computing
Comfy
Ezra Dulis
I sit down in the morning for the flashing screen,
Scroll and scroll for something I've never seen.
Parlor wall or music for the background hum,
Sip my cup, make content, pacified and numb.
I can't hear your voice.
We can't be alone.
I get so creative when I'm only kiddin',
Content to be slackin' cause my light stays hidden.
Sun goes down and I'm scheming how to have more zeros.
Refresh the prices, well I guess next year, oh.
I'm so comfy where I am.
What will get me runnin'?
Just fill me with somethin'.
About
Steve Chab Band makes weird, pretty rock in Pittsburgh. Songs start as poems. Words wrestle roaring emo guitars into odd rhythms and structures that turn when you expect them to hold.
Steve sings from an oversized, hand-painted lyric book. He lays salmon-colored covers across the dining room table and stamps each one, some crooked or blurry.
Emo fans compare SCB to Sunny Day Real Estate and Failure; Spotify slots the music next to early Death Cab.
Broken Images came out in 2024. A year later, eleven artists remixed the whole album, among them The Declining Winter, Hail Your Highness, and Shahar Kaufman, who produces Miqedem. Steve made hip hop beats and electronic tracks long before the band, so he chased down artists he admired and eleven said yes.
2026 brought a rarities cassette. Fifty numbered copies. Solo demos that predate the band. An ambient "The Answer" in a different key. One remix that failed and never made the album. And every lyric read aloud as poetry, straight from the chapbook.
Find SCB writing and recording music or playing festivals, DIY shows, and house concerts.
Steve Chab: vocals, guitar, bass, hand percussion, keys, shofar.
Glenn Durham: drums.
Title track features Melissa Antolec on flute. Recorded and produced by Steve at Vibrant Verse and Glenn's house. Mixed and mastered by Jacob Meador at Orchestrate Sound Studio.
Thanks
Steve
God, Elissa, Glenn, Alex, Melissa, Joy, Ezra, Jeremy, Jacob, Mom C, Mom B, Abraham & Sheila, Pastor Joe, Rabbi Yitzi, Matt Manzo, Mrock, CMU BXA office, Fr. Paul Johnston, Riccardo Schulz, Jim Daniels, Lauren Shapiro.
