John Yingling used to ping-pong between Midwest house shows and dive bars, documenting the punks, artsy weirdos, and the music they created for his blog, Gonzo Chicago, which he began in 2007. But knowing full well that a wider world of DIY haunts lay beyond the Midwestern landscape, he moved to China, launched World Underground, and began "documenting the weirder and louder" from foreign shores.
His first feature-length documentary, The World Underground - Episode 1: China, released in 2015, saw him follow the legendary Chinese band P.K.14 on a tour through Guangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing, and more.
Just last week, Yingling released Episode 2: Guiguisuisui & Noise Arcade, which follows the two Beijing-based expat outfits on a tour through China, South Korea, and Japan. It showcases the region's small clubs and venues, noise acts, rock bands, and uncategorizable mayhem from locales like Daegu, South Korea, and Osaka, Japan, and includes performances and interviews of two-dozen bands and artists, like Korea's Say Sue Me and Japan's Blond New Half.
"An attempt to capture a three-week trek through some of the most beautifully bewildering, drunken, noise-drenched landscapes on earth," Yingling calls it. "Alongside the Korea-based media outlet Aweh, our goal was to align ourselves with as many local artists as possible, and see what stories came naturally. From Busan, to Osaka, all these sounds and stories that stuck to us over the weeks, it's bottled into 90 minutes."
Watch the whole documentary above. Head over to World Underground to see more about Yingling, his current travels through Indonesia, and more tales from the global punk scene.