I was into pandas back before they were cool, man

Blogstar Amanda Marcotte has started a very entertaining ongoing series, "Ask An Insufferable Music Snob" -- entries so far: part 1; part 2. Unlike The Onion's long-running "Ask A… " series (my favorite was always Ask A Former Touring Drummer For The Pointer Sisters), Amanda's is based on actual reader questions, such as:

A friend of mine listens to Linkin Park with astonishing regularity, and fills almost universally the rest of her time with other teen-angsty crap. And she's 21. Just how disdainful am I allowed to be of her musical taste on a scale of one to ten? one being a surrputitious eye roll whenever she brings it up, and ten being "knock knock, who's there? me, having sex with your mom."--karpad

There is actually no reason to be constrained by manners when dissing crappy popular music. In fact, this is pretty much your moment to shine. Passion is, as a general rule, quite uncool and messes up your hair, particularly the kind that involves dancing at shows and sex that gets sweaty as opposed to the kind where you get performed for while wondering if you look like a porn star yet. But when it comes to getting mad that people like the crap on MTV, go crazy. Take your friends' CDs and piss all over them. Point them out at parties and whisper loudly, "They listen to Linkin Park" and watch as their ability to even get someone to point out where the plastic cups are tanks.

Beware though that Linkin Park may in fact be eligible for a kitschy revival in 20 years.

[…]

How can I tell if I'm enjoying something ironically, or if my music taste just sucks?—TravisG

Only teenagers still think they can get away with having bad taste by pretending it's "ironic" anymore, Travis.

Well, them and Gen Xers who voted for Bush.

Go ahead, ask Amanda a question -- especially if you're trying to absorb enough indie rock trivia to pass for a regular at the next Todd P. show.