Music Stuff

My work buddy M and my manager R, who is also a work buddy have been talking computer recording programs, computer drum machines and so on. I definitely appreciate electronic music like Aphex Twin and I'm definitely not one of those classic-rock wonks who thinks "It's not music if it's not made with 'real instruments'", but I don't and have never "gotten" lap-top music. It has less to do with the technology and more to do with the difference between writing music all yourself and collaborating with another person. Even though people who really "play" multiple instruments (I can "operate" a few instruments from time to time, but the only one I would consider I can 'play' is the guitar--even bass guitar I'm merely manipulating as if it were a guitar) necessarily approach one differently from another, there's something that happens when two or more people bounce ideas off of one another that cannot happen when one person is writing and playing every part, considering and executing the finished piece.
I'm far from being a classical musician, and I'm sure a music scholar would say that the relationship between a composer and his performers is a totally different animal from the "rock band" notion I'm talking about. Or maybe not. Maybe all compositons are better after they've been "editted" by another composer, and maybe, even in the highly regimented and written down situation of the, say, violinist playing a part written by someone else, there's a certain personal touch that the instrumentalist necessarily brings to his/her performance.
All I really know is that I can always tell when some singer-songwriter has done everything himself--there's something flat, static, something ultimately boring about it. There's no surprise.
There's also something totally separate about being in a live band. When you play with other people, you have to turn off a part of your brain and let your hands perform their part by themselves so you can listen to what the other guys are doing. Often I wouldn't realize what it was I'd been looking for until I heard a recording of practice, say. It allows you to get ideas for harmonies and melodies that just wouldn't ever happen if you had just been listening to yourself. There's something inherently masturbatory about doing all the parts yourself. And even if you're playing bar-band rock or country or blues, there's nothing like a real drummer.