Pen Cap Chew was recorded during the band's first ever studio session, which saw a solid ten songs recorded. Two of those wound up on Bleach; another five went to Incesticide. Pen Cap Chew is probably better than several of those, but there was one slight problem: the master tape ran out partway through recording. The band didn't want to pay for another tape, so Jack Endino, working as a producer, was left with a partially finished song. His solution? To simply fade the track out towards the end of what he had - resulting in four minute and a bit track that most fans probably wouldn't have noticed was incomplete anyway.