Dave Grohl hitting the drums so hard that he literally bent the rims after every song. That's a real key point to the sound on the first record. He also recorded the drums seperate from the cymbals, which is why those drums sound so tight. These came from an interview I read with the engineer a while back. If you're asking about the more recent CD...no clue, I haven't really paid attention to it.
Im dont know anything about the mic placements that was used, but I read somewhere that when he played with the queens he used 14", 16" and 18" toms with coated emperor batter heads and ambassador clear res heads, 24" kick with controlled sound batter head and ebony or ambassador on re head.
You won't get the QOSTA sound on songs of the deaf without seperating drums from cymbals.
This is actully easier than you think, just have some practices pads and replace your cymbals with them. Record.
Then put the cymbals back and stick the pads where the drums were. Record.
Mix to taste. (well, to sound like QOTSA, lol)
There was a thread on here about a year ago that coverd how to get the sound in great detail. I tried searching for it but to no avail. If you keep searching then im sure it will appear.
here's a website that discusses foo fighters and related gear. if you click on dave, then his drum kits, you'll find information on two of his queens of the stone age kits.