There’s just a short time left to vote for Federal Way’s Perpetual Jet Lag band.

The band, whose members attend Todd Beamer High School, is in the running for the finals of the SchoolJam USA teen battle of the bands.

Luke Kosab, Neil Wagner, Ryan Wolfe and Jon Carlson make up Perpetual Jet Lag.

“It was the first interesting thing I heard in driver’s ed,” Kosab explained of the band name.

“And we couldn’t think of anything better,” Wagner added.

The band has been together for two years. The idea stemmed from a dinner at Red Robin together when they realized they had all the instruments to create a band.

They were in the band room one day, saw the poster for the competition, and realized the deadline was the next day. They quickly put together a submission and made it through to the top 50.

Perpetual Jet Lag is currently being included in the online voting portion of the competition, which began Nov. 1 at www.schooljamusa.com. The public is encouraged to visit the site and vote for their favorite band every 24 hours. The top two bands in five designated regions that receive the most votes will be announced on Dec. 19, and will be invited to the live SchoolJam USA battle of the bands finals Jan. 16 at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif. Perpetual Jet Lag is competing in the Southwest region.

The boys aren’t quite sure how they got put in the Southwest division.

“We’re competing against Texas,” Kosab said.

They are the only band from Washington that made it to the top 50.

The winning band will receive $750 toward new musical equipment and could win a trip to perform at the SchoolJam Germany live finals in Frankfurt, Germany, at the MusikMesse trade fair. The top band’s school music program will also receive $5,000 toward new musical equipment purchased at their local NAMM Member retailer of choice.

“If we go farther, the school gets funding, we get exposure,” Kosab said.

“Everyone wins,” Wagner added.

For now, the boys’ goals are getting through to California and scoring more gigs. They have also recently recorded a five-song EP, and they hope to get it on the radio.

They added that the EP is now up on the band’s MySpace page (myspace.com/perpetualjetlag), and is much better quality than what they quickly recorded for the competition.

“Vote every day,” Wagner said. “We represent Federal Way and Washington.”