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John Flansburgh (left) and John Linell of They Might Be Giants recorded an album of songs for chi

Accustomed to performing in front of adults who understand songs about prosthetic foreheads, mammals and the political achievements of James K. Polk, cult-rock band They Might Be Giants has had a challenging experience performing in front of children. Since the release of their children’s album “No!” in 2002, the musical duo of John Flansburgh and John Linell have found themselves doing kiddy matinees like this Sunday’s at Royce Hall, for children from infancy to age 8 – an easily distracted audience to say the least.

“Adults have more invested in everybody having a nice time,” said TMBG singer and accordion player Linell. “They applaud in the right places, and they get nervous if the band isn’t going over (well). And kids are not like that. If they are even slightly uninterested they will wander off or start talking.”

Linell, who has a young son himself, said that although he loves kids on a one-on-one basis, it is simply hard to perform in front of them. “You have to have nerves of steel to put up with kids talking during your show,” he said.

The songs on “No!” were originally intended for 5- to 12-year-olds, and indeed this is the age group that responds most enthusiastically to the band’s kid-oriented material. But Linell continually notices that parents bring babies to TMBG shows who, as he puts it, “probably don’t know where they are or what’s going on.” He said this is understandable since most parents of young children are looking for ways to entertain both themselves and their kids.

“Other than taking them to the McDonald’s Playland, what are the possible ways to entertain a kid that age?” said Linell. And so, the task of entertaining children falls on the shoulders of the Giants.

“I think Flansburgh has gotten pretty good at keeping the ball rolling and keeping the kids engaged, (but) he’s said emphatically that he would rather do shows for adults,” Linell said.

Aside from speaking clearly, trying not to swear, and avoiding sarcastic humor, Linell said the band doesn’t do much differently on stage than it does for an adult show. In order to keep the tots’ attention, the Giants rely mainly on their performance energy and the fun nature of their songs, which were deliberately written to be entertaining rather than educational.

Unlike some of the band’s adult recordings, “No!” doesn’t contain songs which explain why the sun shines. Rather, it is chock-full of silly stuff like “John Lee Supertaster,” a tune about a man with the super power of high-intensity taste buds, and “I Am A Grocery Bag,” a 34-second ditty which lists the contents of the narrator.

“You don’t always have to be improved by culture, you can just be entertained,” said Linell, explaining why this album was written to be amusing rather than pedagogical.

According to Linell, the idea of doing a children’s album had not really occurred to him or Flansburgh even once in their 20-year career. Then, sometime between the release of their albums “Severe Tire Damage” and “Mink Car,” a friend made the suggestion.

“This seemed like an appealing direction for us,” said Linell. “(It) was not going to confuse anyone about what kind of band we were.”

As it turned out, the process of writing an album for kids enabled the band to tap into a new creative channel.

“A lot of the material on ‘No!’ was really inspired by the thought that we could do anything that seemed good, and it didn’t have to refer to anything culturally,” said Linell. “It was almost like context-free music. We just let our imaginations cut loose, and that was a great experience for us.”

Linell added that writing in this no-rules way is something the band would like to do for adults, but that it is impossible due to adults’ preconceived notions and their tendency to relate music to some sort of historical or cultural context.

Since “No!,” TMBG has been keeping busy with more kid-oriented projects, like writing music for a series of Disney storybooks and DVDs. On the adult front, they recently released a five-song EP “Indestructible Object” which includes two preview songs for its next LP, “The Spine,” which will be released this summer.