Pots and pans?I'll be there like a rocket mate!

''Hey!Look at me!Laptop can be fun!''

idle hands are the devil's play thing!

Fair enough.You carry on wanking your guitar then and i'm sure something good will come out of it at one point.I'll titillate my keyboard keys.Man Machine?Man's gone!Jumped into the machine..............................&$%&&£"%"£%"£ %"%"£%"!!!!$^&*((

i use my computer with my guitar..
i'd seriously consider - if it was the case - incorporating a laptop into live performance..

it's not limited to genre..
the jesus and mary chain used drum machines for a while..
so did the sisters of mercy..

turning into a boombox performance?
maybe.. but the priority is the music performed in itself..
the computer *can be* a very powerful music instrument..

i don't mean pushing the play button and doing nothing else..
manipulating samples and creating soundscapes..

So did Big Black and Echo and the Bunnymen.

I think it is perfectly OK to make use of tapes, sequencers, and samplers in performance.

If you have artistic talent, nothing should hold you back from performing music. To me, that is what a drum machine is about.

I'd be curious to know how opinions evolved in four years... it seems like laptops are everywhere now - including outside "pure" electronic music, so how's everyone feeling about them?

I must say my opinion has quite evolved about it - though I did not listen to any electronic music in 2006, and now it represents most of what I listen to -; I used to think live laptop was necessarily boring, while now I see no real problem with it. I still prefer laptop + other instruments, but I've got no problems with laptop alone. I'd even go as far as calling it a musical instrument. I mean, isn't an "instrument" basically a mean to do something; therefore a musical instrument being a mean to play music. I think there is kind of a myth around instruments which leads people to think laptop can't be an instrument since anyone can play it, as it requires no specific skill. I don't know.
Anyway yeah... curious to hear what y'all think

Funny, I've seen less laptops in live settings than I used to.

Now, I really can't stand people who DJ from laptops. It just feels cheap.

In the last 4 years I've changed from playing in a band with a laptopper to playing in two bands with a laptopper. I think it really depends on the music - I did see an absolutely astonishing performance by a laptopper in a local gallery darkroom last year - that worked wonderfully. I think a lot of laptop-based music seems to come with an aesthetic now, after years of the 'are you checking your e-mails?' comments.

Question: is the laptop face the new drummer's gurn?

seems like it has

I love the way Mattin does it.

Cock ESP is still prolly my favorite noise band ever.

i agree.

i saw AGF last year and her set worked really well, partly down to the fact she used great visuals and provided vocals and audience participation which in turn felt like like i was seeing somebody perform rather than pressing play and sitting on their arse for an hour.

interesting article, not exactly on the subject but quite relevant and i was too bored to do a new thread so i thought i'd bump this one:

joe muggs on performance in the digital age