Groups brought bang up to date / part two

The iron was reasonably warm, so...

The Psychedelic Faux Furs > They sound just like they used to.  They look just like they used to.  To those that get close enough to touch them, they even feel like they used to.  But this time around, you will be pleased to know it is perfectly acceptable to like them.  Your conscience is clear.  And you just might be photographed with a celebrity if you hang around long enough.

R.E.GM. > After several years of intensive research and exhaustive laboratory testing, R.E.M. are back with a vengeance in their new guise as R.E.GM..  Catchier.  Louder.  More prodigious.  Able to withstand a wider range of parasitic fans and music journalists.  Will likely mutate and wipe out indie-label competitors and/or switch to a jazz-folk-bhangra fusion which is highly unpalatable and dangerous to other species.

EuroDollar >  The weakness of the U.S. currency and a lucrative sponsorship deal with a car rental company brings Dollar back into business with a brand new moniker.  Combining their financial nous, lightweight pop tunes and Peter Pan-esque looks brings great rewards until a massive budget deficit in the newly-formed United States of Europe and a crash in the derivatives market forces them back into retirement with their buffoned tails between their legs.

Spin Dr. Hook > Though debate continued to rage over the so-called "sexing-up" of their 1979 album Pleasure and Pain, they present new material to provide evidence to back up their hit-making claims.  However, in the midst of a tour showcasing  the new material (aka. "Operation Hook and Awe"), a leak from inside their management team reveals that "When You're In Love With a Beautiful Woman" was indeed the subject of considerable re-writing in order to "sex it up".  The claims that  "it never ends, you know it never ends" and the "Problem is I've been fooled before" were found to have been based on inadequate intelligence and were inserted during a private meeting of record label senior management.  The controversy continues.

The New Asylum Seekers >  Although briefly back in the limelight, a concerted and thought-provoking Daily Mail campaign ("The New Asylum Seekers Eat Children And Sing Evil Harmonies") forces the group underground.  Although originally working perfectly legitimately in the music business, at the present time it is believed that the band is forced to subsist in a shadowy world of working men's clubs, "cash-in-hand" gigs and unregulated gang masters.  They are responsible for most of the ills of contemporary society (see also The Single Mothers of Invention).