[food/drink] GATORADE: LEMONADE + RASPBERRY LEMONADE

It always makes me slightly uncomfortable to turn over a single aspect of my life to any one corporate entity; even one that's basically harmless could go out of business or be acquired. But for the past year or two, Gatorade Co. has owned me. I can live with that. They make the only liquid (so far) that's flavored enough for me to stomach but watery enough to hydrate myself on without catastrophe.

First two new flavors I've seen since becoming a Gatorade addict: The lemonade seemed all wrong at first and indescribably so, the beverage equivalent of having your stereo cranked up too high when you turn it on so that there's a moment of deafening noise while you instinctively lunge for the volume knob. Once that went away, it tasted sweeter than normal Gatorade (though it has the same amount of sugar), with a strange aftertaste that I started to crave in the way that I gather some people like the aftertaste of diet soda or enjoy eating lip balm. I'm guessing the aftertaste and the bizarre first sip have the same root cause, whatever it is. Not perfect, but I would drink a gallon of this before a drop of Minute Maid Lemonade with its weird chemical burn.

The raspberry lemonade... this must be the first time a Gatorade flavor's name has aroused my suspicion not by being vague ("Riptide Rush") but by being too specific-- everybody knows it's called "pink lemonade". Unfortunately, I wasn't suspicious enough to actually pass it up. The only commercial soft drink I've had bitterer than this was a British chinotto soda which, a friend helpfully explained, they couldn't sell in America due to its foulness (my paraphrase). Gatorade flavors usually come in threes, so I looked on the internet to see if my corner store had missed out on one, but gatorade.com has no mention of lemonade in any form, leading me to wonder whether I've been poisoned by a maker of bootleg energy drinks. Eurgh.

[music] THE PIPETTES - demo (self-released)

Hearing the Pipettes' "Simon Says" on a mix CD yesterday without knowing who it was, I jumped to two false conclusions. First, that the band were from 25 years ago when Girls At Our Best walked the earth exposing post-punk bands to the joy of prettily imperious girl-group vocals; and second, that the song ran average length for a pop song.

In reality they come from England, 2004. And the brilliantly compact song I fell in love with lasts only 80 seconds of harmonies, shouting, handclaps and organ. This is great. This is the best thing ever. This is what I needed to get through the first few dull weeks of January, when even fewer records get released than in December.

Conveniently, the band's near-total obscurity (which won't last long, since I see early signs of the UK hype machine cranking up) is currently offset by some kind soul's decision to bootleg the Pipettes demo and post it on the internet. Search for [ pipettes mp3s ] and you're set. Download "Simon Says" and "It Hurts 2 C U Dance So Well", then don't make any plans for the next two and a half minutes.