In life, there are several prescribed conversations that serve as a right of passage.

As a preteen, you’ll have The Talk with one of your parents. With very little eye contact, you’ll receive a harried, mumbled account of the birds and the bees. When you’re older…two people who love each other…very careful… This conversation is most notable for the rare view it affords of an authority figure in profound discomfort. It is also the last time sex will be discussed without slang words outside the doctor’s office.

As you grow into adulthood and engage in romantic relationships of your own, you’ll be informed several times that “We need to talk.” Usually this means you are being broken up with.

Independent rap music blogs have their own kinds of talks. And the time to gather round the hearth is upon us. We’re here to have The Talk about preorders—we’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. Now just sit tight, this’ll only take a minute.

The Sims record Bad Time Zoo is available for pre-order now. If you follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or around the neighborhood, you’ll know that Doomtree is pretty enthusiastic about its preorders. In brief, here’s why:

The music industry pays special attention to the first week of a new album’s release. The sales during those seven days can help capture the attention of critics, radio stations, distributors and all sorts of fancy people. Indie labels with limited resources and modest marketing budgets rely on preorders to help generate momentum during that first week. When our dedicated listeners preorder, we can ship them their discs all at once—effectively sending up a little flare into the sky above Minneapolis to be seen by potential partners.

To those of you who’ve helped us send the signal, thanks.
If you’ve got new Christmas bucks burning holes in the pockets of new pants, you know what to do: BTZ.

Egg nog, over.
Next stop: bubbly.
Dessa.