I was listening to Pandora, (an excelent site that I can’t recomend enough), when I found a group call Apples in Stereo.
For a moment I though I was listening to the beatles.
They are great and yet I’ve never heard them.
So, which other small unhard of groups can you recomend me?
Though nobody could really replace him, José González has come the nearest to Nick Drake’s guitar style that I’ve ever heard. And he’s not a bad singer in his own right, too.
Try The Sea & Cake and solo albums by Sam Prekop, the S & C lead dude (S & C having broken up, I think).
I really dig early Apples in Stereo, I liked them less as they got older. If you like them a good place to start off is with some of the other Elephant 6 groups. Olivia Tremor Control is great…and then there is Neutral Milk Hotel my very favorite Elephant 6 band, and one of my all time favorite bands. Check out in the Aeroplane over the Sea, hands down the best album about one man’s obsession with Anne Frank ever produced. Stunning music, and lyrics like they don’t make them anymore. I happen to like his voice, but it isn’t for everyone, so be warned.
If you are into that big power pop sound you might want to check out my favorite power pop band The New Pornographers or their band member AC Newman’s album The Slow Wonder, or anything by **Destroyer ** or Neko Case. All good stuff. All fun and poppy but with real meat in the songs, both musically and lyrically.
What was the Pandora station you were listening to tuned to, I can give you more recommendations based on that. (who needs fancy computer programs when you got the SDMB!)
Yeah, I’d agree with this - good pop/rock stuff.
More similar to the kind of Beatlesesque pop you’re talking about (somewhat similar to early Apples in Stereo, though more lush and better-produced than most of the Elephant 6 groups NAF1138 mentioned) is the album The Complete Pet Soul by Splitsville. Trust me.
Some other stuff you might like if you like bright 60s pop (a lot of this is older and/or not so obscure, so I apologize if you’re already familiar with them):
The Ladybug Transistor - The Albemarle Sound
XTC - Skylarking or Black Sea
Cinerama - Va Va Voom
The first Marshall Crenshaw album (self-titled)
The dB’s - Stands for Decibels/Repercussion
The Housemartins - London 0, Hull 4
The first few Belle & Sebastian albums
The Divine Comedy - A Secret History: Best Of
Also, mid/late-80s Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, though it’s all out of print now.
Various tracks by The Lucksmiths, Kings of Convenience, My Favorite, Jens Lekman, Sondre Lerche…
I’d say solo Neko Case is darker than the stuff she does with The New Pornographers. Still gorgeous, definitely, but I’d file it away under “country noir” (think more “old school” country than the twangy Toby Keith stuff) more than a shiny happy pop(ple?) category.
The Redwalls remind me of The Beatles. Unfortunately, I can’t elaborate past that.
And for bands that don’t remind me of The Beatles specifically, but you might like anyway:
Rogue Wave
The Fruit Bats
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
If you enjoy Belle & Sebastian, Sondre Lerche, and Jens Lekman (per woodstockbirdybird’s post), you might also enjoy Camera Obscura, Pernice Brothers, Okkervil River, and The Concretes. If you like Kings of Convenience, you should also try Iron & Wine.
The New Pornographers (per NAF1138’s post) are similar to Tilly and the Wall, an awesome band with a tap dancer for a percussionist. They have the same sort of happy, energetic pop.
If I continue like this, I’ll have referred you my entire music collection, so I’ll stop. (But I’ll probably be back later.)
Anyone who likes bright, tuneful pop will enjoy Acid House Kings. I have their album “Sing Along with Acid House Kings” and I recommend it highly: They do an aboslutely dead-on 70s AM pop sound, including disco and acoustic, without descending into kitsch or irony. It is quite beautiful.
“The Negro Problem”. Their album “Welcome Black”, of about five years ago, has an especially Beatleseque range.
HijacK:
Holy Crap, I just checked out Pandora. The first suggestion it gave me* made me positively giddy with delight. Thanks for showing me this site!
-FrL-
*I had entered They Might Be Giants and Bishop Allen, and it recommended a song by a group called Askelton. I liked it quite a bit. I don’t know if it was BA or TMBG which triggered it, or somehow both. Not sure how it works exactly. I just know it works. 
I forgot to add: some of Of Montreal’s less annoying stuff reminds me of Revolver-era Beatles, but you really have to search if you want to find the less annoying stuff.