Collin Erie for Spinner.com

Learning from Radiohead and R.E.M. is like apprenticing with Picasso. Just ask indie beloved Deerhoof, who recently toured with Thom Yorke and Co., who passed down some lessons from R.E.M.

"I, at one point, had to go up to Thom Yorke and attempt to describe just the sheer gratitude that the tour was so wonderful of an experience for us, and his answer was interesting," Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier told Spinner at the band's Interface taping. "He immediately went back in his mind to when Radiohead used to open for R.E.M., and he said that R.E.M. always also made a point of making the experience of a tour, which can be grueling or impersonal at times, into something beautiful and friendship creating."

Saunier also says there's a lot more to Radiohead than meets the eye. "Everybody knows about Radiohead, but the behind the scenes aspect speaks volumes about their sincerity," Saunier says. "It's not just for good PR that they make the choices that they make. They really feel it intensely from their hearts, and they are the craziest jokesters. So funny."

Who knew?