http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/i...ng-cranks.html

It's a divisive subject. Clearly there are two schools of thought, but there are obviously people happy with both methods. Choose yours, and live with the consequences.

i plan to chose neither, but rather to sit on the fence and wait until things become so bad that they disintigrate, at which point i'll buy a new bike and have someone else put it together for me.



(just kidding.)

since i'm sure everyone was following this with a keen interest, turns out the BB was just loose. got it tightened up and now not only is their no popping, but the chain is about 80x's quieter too. must have been so loose that it was throwing chainline off. eek.
thanks everyone for their help.