Notes from the smoking patio

Hillcrest's vinyl emporium, Record City, will host its first in-store on Aug. 25 to celebrate the release of The Atoms' 7-inch single, "2029." Billed as a "Pizza Party," the all-ages event gets under way at 4 p.m. Pressed on white vinyl and limited to 300 copies, the single is the first release from Sweet Tooth Records--the indie label owned by singer and Record City maven Kelly Alvarez. MS/atoms, MS/sweettoothrecs.

On Aug. 25, former No Knife guitarist-vocalist Ryan Ferguson will be at M-Theory Records to perform tracks from his debut solo full-length, Only Trying to Help. Music starts at 3 p.m. MS/ryanferguson.

A Monkees DVD, called Secret File, has just hit the Internet. It includes home movie footage shot on Sept. 11, 1966, at the band's public debut in Del Mar. The simian boy-band took a trip by rail to promote their single "Last Train to Clarksville." The Del Mar Amtrak station played the role of "Clarksville" for the occasion, and it's worth a look just to see what San Diego's Yuppieville looked like four decades ago.

For the second year in a row, indie-rockers Ricksha have been invited to perform at the Knoxville, Tenn., music festival "Hottfest." The Aug. 26 event is organized by former Superdrag drummer Don Coffey, who produced Ricksha's most recent album, Diamond Pressure. MS/ricksha.

On Thursday and Friday, Aug. 23 and 24, The Casbah will host a pair of shows celebrating the release of a compilation album from Golden Hill's Black Box Studios. Performing Thursday will be Goblin Cock, Japanese Sunday, Vitro, Swim Party and Sirhan Sirhan, while the Friday night show features Sleeping People, Hialeah, Goodbye Blue Monday, Modern Rifles and Fever Sleeves in the Atari Lounge. www.blackboxrecordingstudios.com.

Blues Lovers United San Diego will host the third round of "The International Blues Challenge" on Saturday, Aug. 25, at Winston's. This week's blues-off starts at 1:30 p.m. and features 20-minute sets from Fred Heath Blues, Beale Street West, Cool Fever, Backwater Blues Band and The Hugh Gaskins Band. The winner will go up against the champs from previous weeks--Fuzzy and Aunt Kizzy's Boys--during the finals at 'Canes on Sept. 15. The overall winner will be sent to compete in Memphis in 2008. Last year. Nathan James & Ben Hernandez took first place for "Best Blues Duo" at the national competition. In 2006, Aunt Kizzy's Boys placed second in the band category. www.blusd.org.