Everything Flows: Kids

Trust me #86
Kids by MGMT

Have you seen the early footage of a pre-signed MGMT playing Kids at an outdoor show in 2003? It's kind of gone viral.

And no wonder! It's a cool, daft, fun and pure performance by two friends who seem to have realised they have created a brilliant leftfield pop song. Check it out below.

You'll find other early MGMT songs from this show on the same YouTube account, plus a Talking Heads cover.

Kids was originally released on an EP in 2005 when MGMT were still known as The Management, the song was then re-released as a single in 2008 and it went everywhere!

Rewind back 5 years and MGMT's core duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser are playing a gig outside in the yard of Wesleyan University for their annual Zonker Harris Day.

One of their old classmates found the footage on an old hard drive and it is pure joy; the duo playing with just an electronics board, goofy dancing and generally having fun without a care in the world. The infectious melodic synth riff immediately translates to the crowd who dance in the sun.

Andrew and Ben literally bounce off each other, dancing, singing in harmony, playing air synth to the pre-recorded pieces, laughing as they literally crawl about the small stage and then leap into the crowd and across the yard to play with branches/trees for an extended 2-minute instrumental.

"We used the to think about how to make the most stereotypical pop song and that's one of the ones we did. Ben wrote the music when he was 19, drunk in his dorm room. Then I wrote the lyrics for my 20th birthday." Andrew VanWyngarden

"Kids is the result of us being 19-years old, in this fantasy college world, which is a little bit like childhood because you don't have much responsibility." Ben Goldwasser

Kids and Time to Pretend were absolutely everywhere in 2008; pubs, clubs, parties, radio, MTV ... they were remarkably fresh electronic and psychedelic (especially Time to Pretend) pop songs that stood out a mile from everything else going on.

Both still sound fresh and vital in 2025. But lets focus on Kids.

Kids is everything that is great about pop music. It's simple, pure and immediately catchy. Yet it's also slightly weird, psychedelic and beautifully different.

The synth riff is beautiful, whether it is played on a keyboard or by an orchestra. It's simple, pure, catchy ... brilliant! Add a beat behind and it just takes off. There are standout lines, hooks galore and then the HUGE chorus

We like to watch you laughing

You pick the insects off plants, no time to think of consequences

Control yourself

Take only what you need from it

A family of trees wanting

To be haunted

There is a single edit, but the full version has an extended middle section, just like the early 2003 version. MGMT would extend it even further in their live shows. Check this epic 8-minute version from Glastonbury 2014. Listen to the way the crowd responds to the riff and then sings along with it. MGMT develop and jam the song into a full on rave and then bring it back to THAT riff - glorious!

MGMT's Kids is added to my Trust Me playlist; search for Everything Flows - Trust Me on Spotify or CLICK HERE Check below for all previous blogs in my Trust Me series.