CEDAR FALLS - A school variety show brought together the members of Jack Says No in 2006.

Guitarist Oliver Weilein and drummer Jack Van Gent were planning to wow their peers with a Green Day cover song, but there was a catch.

"We were just kind of missing a piece of the puzzle without a bass player," explained Weilein, a ninth-grader.

So the boys invited Mija Bean to jam along. Together, the trio rocked Holmes Junior High School with a rendition of "Hitchin' a Ride."

Two years later, the teen punk band is still going strong. Earlier this year, they booked a gig with Detroit's The High Strung at the Cedar Falls Public Library. Last month the teens, all 14, performed a solo show at the library and are looking for more opportunities to get their sound out to the public.

"We're all very musical, as we're in plays and chorus at school," said Bean. "But the band is something that we put our own time in and we get to make all the decisions about what we want to play."

Jack Says No sounds like Green Day, with equal parts of The Ramones and The Clash thrown in for good measure. Consequently, the group covers songs from those bands (as well as Blink 182 and The Waitresses). The teens also write their own material. Weilein pens most of the lyrics, with Bean and Van Gent collaborating on the musical composition.

"I'm not the favorite student of most teachers, and I get really, really mad at one of my teachers, so I write about that kind of stuff," he said. "I'm not really a political writer, I just talk about the adolescent experience."

Jack Says No rehearses two to three times a week, scheduling more practices before a big gig. Last year they hosted an alternative spring dance in Bean's garage and performed at a graduation party for one of their friend's older sisters.

"We just like to go up and just have fun and entertain other people with our music," said Van Gent.

The band has a wide range of goals for the future, ranging from "get famous" to "play more shows" to "cut a real CD." But the threesome agrees that no matter what the next few years bring, they're happy with what they've accomplished as Jack Says No.

"Being in a band makes you a better musician because you have to pay attention to what other people are doing," Van Gent said. "And it's just a lot of fun."

Contact Mary Stegmeir at (319) 291-1482 or mary.stegmeir@wcfcourier.com.