Popcast: The Lumineers, Top 40's Unlikeliest Act This week, Jon Pareles, chief pop music critic for The Times, talks to host Ben Ratliff about his sojourn in Denver with the folk-rock band the Lumineers, one of the most rapid and instructive success stories of 2012. Here's a band that not long ago had to move to Colorado to get gigs in their local New York City venues; that gets meticulous about busker aesthetics; that ritually wades into its crowds for its stomp-and-chant set pieces; that has sold nearly a million copies of its first album in less than a year; and that has helped change the rules of Top 40 radio with its hit single, "Ho Hey." Jon Pareles on the Lumineers James C. McKinley Jr. on this weekend's Grammy Awards