The first ten tracks on "Queens of the Stone Age" were recorded in April 1998 at Monkey Studios in Homme's hometown of Palm Desert, California. Hernández played drums on the tracks and Goss performed on "You Would Know" and "Give the Mule What He Wants", playing bass guitar and singing backing vocals. Homme sang lead vocals and played the rest of the instruments on the recordings, crediting himself under the pseudonym "Carlo" for his bass guitar, keyboard, and piano work. He also served as a producer on the album, alongside Joe Barresi. The "Gamma Ray" song "If Only Everything" was re-recorded during these sessions and its title shortened to "If Only", and the Desert Sessions song "Avon" was also re-recorded. "I Was a Teenage Hand Model" was recorded separately at Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California, with the studio's personnel contributing as performers: studio owner Fred Drake sang and played drums, co-owner Dave Catching played percussion, and sound engineer Patrick "Hutch" Hutchinson played piano. Former Dinosaur Jr. bassist Mike Johnson is credited with "sofa" on the track. Hutch, who served as live sound engineer for both Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, is credited as a member of the group on the album, with the roles "FOH" (front of house), "guru", "HardWalls", and "back of door".