Most of the songs on "Slap-Happy" were recorded before the band decided to form Wax Tadpole. Sparks and Gardner wrote all the songs, usually at Gardner's home, even though the whole group contributed to the album in one form or another. Unlike its predecessor, "Slap-Happy" was made with a low budget. According to Sparks, "We utilized a lot of home studios, did a lot of our tracking ourselves, used a lot of first takes. I think there's a lot of life in this record, and yet I think when we started our own label we were fearing having to take a major step down in production because of the financial aspects." The album was produced by Brian Haught, a friend of the band who let the band use his studio "just out of the kindness of his heart." It was recorded and mixed at Synical Labs, PCS Studios, Sound City, de Prume Studios, Sonors Studios, and King Sound and Pictures in Los Angeles. Audio mastering took place at Precision Mastering in Los Angeles.