Venturing out of the Ubuntu kiddie pool

I thought I might try something Debian-based, instead of Ubuntu-based, so I downloaded an iso of Crunchbang. The livecd looked workable, but then it wouldn't install. I mean, I haven't given up on it yet, but if it consistently says it can't install Grub I am going to have to.

Anyone else have extra trouble with Debian systems?

I know almost nothing about Grub. Grub is complicated and the task of learning more about it looks pretty intimidating from here.