Donots

Brothers Ingo and Guido Knollmann launched Donots in 1993 within the modest coal-mining community of Ibbenbüren, establishing a German punk mainstay that endured more than twenty years. Following several seasons of regional performances, early demo work, and lineup adjustments, the ensemble stabilized around Ingo handling vocals, Guido alongside Alex Siedenbiedel on guitar, Jan-Dirk Poggemann on bass, and Eike Herwig on drums. Their 1996 debut, Pedigree Punk, blended anthemic punk with pop-punk, hardcore, and indie rock elements, generating sufficient attention to draw major-label interest after support dates with blink-182, No Use for a Name, and similar prominent groups. BMG’s Gun Records subsidiary subsequently released the follow-up, Tonight's Karaoke Contest Winners, in 1998.

Pocket Rock arrived in 2001 and propelled the band into broader success via the breakthrough single “Whatever Happened to the 80s.” Sustained headliner status followed throughout the next decade, as successive albums registered on charts throughout Europe and Japan. Donots inaugurated their independent Solitary Man Records imprint with the 2008 album Coma Chameleon—another nod among many to 1980s pop culture—and issued their eighth full-length, The Long Way Home, through the same outlet in 2010. A high-profile tour alongside Green Day heightened their profile, prompting a joint venture between Solitary Man and Universal’s Vertigo Records for the 2012 release Wake the Dogs, which became their first Top Ten entry by reaching number six on the German album chart. The band’s inaugural U.S. trek the next year was documented on the concert film and live album Wake the States.

Marking two decades together in 2014, Donots issued the single “Das Neue Bleibt Beim Alten,” their first track performed entirely in German. Strong fan reaction prompted the all-German studio album Karacho the following year; it climbed to number five in Germany and prompted an English-language counterpart for the Japanese market.