On the MHD channel, MTV/VH1/CMT/Viacom play anything with the words “music” and “high-def,” and the content is typically bland: pop-country videos, mainstream hip-hop videos, awful Unplugged series concerts, full-length concerts starring the Pussycat Dolls. So I’m still not sure how something this good showed up on the channel the other day: From The Basement, Nigel Godrich’s intimate TV concert series. They don’t show this in the states, from what I can tell, except when the show dedicates its full hour to Radiohead.

Radiohead seem like the ultimate subject for this treatment—no massive arena, no overblown stage lighting. Just a small studio, some buddies mildly applauding between songs, and a beautiful rug to spaz out upon. I’m actually frightened by how similarly Thom Yorke and I digest the grinding rhythm of “Myxamatosis” via awkward dance: The opening bit where he thrusts forward and backward like MC Hammer on crack, then the side-to-side head bob, the wrist-flicks as if he were flinging bottle caps… if he kicked the air as if dribbling an invisible soccer ball, I’d have myself a doppelganger.

The thing isn’t that he’s dancing all that oddly—he’s keeping still half the time, ya know. But you can tell that there’s a different kind of comfort here, as if he believes nobody else is around, and the rest of the band shares this sort of isolated glee throughout the show, whether mouthing along to lyrics, scooting toward each other for guitar solo passages, or letting a dumb headbang emerge on occasion. This is my kind of Radiohead—the kind I hear and respond to when I’m alone in the music room, shuffling around in isolation with no worry that someone will see me fling my arms around as if I’m painting the fence.

MHD is showing this episode on repeat, and I think VH1 is squeezing the gig between reality show sandwiches as well. Boy. Sure would be cool if From The Basement episodes like this saw regular American airplay.