Charles Moothart

A one-man garage-psych band with a healthy pedigree, Charles Moothart is a San Francisco-based garage rock musician who has worked extensively with Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin as part of bands such as Epsilons, Fuzz, and Charlie & the Moonhearts. Moothart's specialty is buzzy rock & roll with a psychedelic flair, distinct blues and classic rock influences, and a tone that's open to both joy and darker human emotions. Moothart's first solo work was released under the name CFM, whose debut album, 2016's Still Life of Citrus & Slime, was a downcast meditation on a romance gone sour. The project matured into a more thematically varied vehicle on 2019's Soundtrack to an Empty Room, and in in 2024 he began trading under his own name with the album Black Holes Don't Choke, a widescreen exercise in psych-influenced guitar rock that showed his mastery of the studio. Charles Moothart's résumé in the world of contemporary garage punk is extensive. He played guitar with the Ty Segall Band, held down the drummer's spot in Segall's later touring outfit the Freedom Band, and was guitarist as well as vocalist in Fuzz, Segall's homage to his hard rock influences. Moothart also worked with GØGGS, which featured Segall and Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult, and he was a member of the Moonhearts with Mikal Cronin of Thee Oh Sees, along with acting as a backing musician on the albums Mikal Cronin and MCII. Moothart began the CFM project after breaking up with his longtime girlfriend, retreating to his home studio, and writing songs all by his lonesome. The resulting album, Still Life of Citrus & Slime, appeared on In the Red in April 2016. While the album was a solo effort, Moothart assembled a touring lineup of CFM, including guitarist Michael Anderson, bassist Tyler Frome, and drummer Thomas Alvarez (of Audacity). A year later, Moothart returned with Dichotomy Desaturated, featuring the single "Rise and Fall." Moothart beefed up the guitars and added to the band's hard rock undertow with the third CFM LP, 2019's Soundtrack to an Empty Room. Moothart's busy schedule working with Ty Segall's many projects kept him occupied over the next several years, but he eventually found time to return to the studio and complete his first album under his own name, 2024's Black Holes Don't Choke, issued by In the Red. A powerful fusion of psychedelia, hard rock, blues, and swaggering classic rock, the LP was another true solo effort, with the entire album written, performed, and recorded by Moothart himself.
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