Playing Backing Tracks Live
 

Hello, everyone. This is my first post here, and I have hopes that some of my questions can be answered. My friend and I have been writing and recording for a while, and would like to play our songs live. What I want to do is to have the drum, keyboard, and layered guitar tracks prerecorded, then play the main leads and bass live on top. Right now, I have this large old component CD player and run it into the line-in on the PA. It works OK, but I don't trust it that much, (CD skipping, etc...), plus it must be close enough to stop and start manually.
What can you recommend for playback devices? I'd like to know the pros and cons of the different methods. I know you can use laptop computers, but I don't have one right now to use for just that. iPods, or other type MP3 player?
How is the sound quality with these? What I'm looking for is first good sound, reliablility, easy to stop/start, advance to different song, and affordability, (although I would like to hear experiences with all forms, even if I can't use it right now). I am just now looking into loopers,computers, sequencers, and MIDI, but I am still pretty clueless right now. I don't want to have to fiddle with a bunch of things while trying to play. I'm looking for the next best step for now, and then the best goal for the future. Thanks